Confession
by shalice
Summary: A silly sappy drabble about Hal & Dave. OtaSune.


"I like you."

Solid Snake, the legendary mercenary-turned-philanthropist, watched his gangly scientist counterpart fumble and nearly drop the plate he was drying onto the floor as he whipped around to face his partner. Miraculously, Hal's less-than-catlike reflexes managed to save their cheap bachelor's dinnerware from an untimely fate.

"What?!"

"Ah. I said I like you, Hal." Said engineer looked at him wide-eyed, but the soldier seemed characteristically composed as he began to stack their dishes and put them away. Hal cleared his throat nervously and turned back to the plate he was drying, a faint blush crossing his features and tinting the tips of his ears pink.

"W-What is this all of a sudden?" He stuttered in a low voice. David frowned slightly; he hadn't anticipated having to spell it out letter-for-letter. He paused in his work and the light clinking of plates halted. Now Dave considered himself a fairly straightforward person. He and Hal were always pretty honest with each other. They had to be, in their line of work. And David tried to be honest with himself too, at least for the most part.

They started living together out of necessity, but after only a few months it was apparent they had become close friends. Whether this was because they were equally starved for close friendship or due to the fact that they had innately trusted each other since Shadow Moses Dave didn't know. But the fact remained that they were, for some reason, incredibly compatible. Dave had a difficult time at first when he started noticing other things too – the line of Hal's neck as he craned over his desktop keyboard late at night, the way he rubbed at the bridge of his nose after taking his glasses off, the way his nose scrunched when going through code, how his face brightened when talking about his hobbies… Dave shook himself out of that line of thinking before his face reddened.

He turned to face Hal and noticed a deep concentration, perhaps even hinting at concern, in his eyes. He balled his hands loosely into fists and looked the scientist square in the face. There was no getting by this now; he just had to say it.

"I like you, Hal. A lot." Fumbling with what else to say, he continued awkwardly. "I mean, at first it was nice just to have a friend. More than nice. It was great. But lately… it's been…" Dave reached up and played with the back of his hair. "Well, it's been harder to concentrate around you, for… for a lot of reasons. That's kind of putting it mildly." His hand fell back to his side and a tight nervousness wrenched at his gut. "Look, I'm not very good with this kind of thing, so I'm just going to say it. I love you Hal Emmerich, and I have for a while now."

Dave looked his roommate and best friend directly in the eye until, blinking, Hal slowly half-turned away and put down the plate. He reached up and shakily fixed the position of his eyeglasses on the bridge of his nose. His mind was racing, as tends to happen when confronted with an unexpected problem or situation. Solid Snake, the hero of Shadow Moses and man who had saved his life, helped him immensely during his lowest point, and had become his best friend, just confessed his love for him. No, this wasn't usually how things went, right? I mean, it's not like he hadn't been noticing Dave as well…. Those taut muscles, the gravel in his voice when he laughed, his deft fingers when cleaning his pistol, how a glance could say so much when his words were few…. The engineer pulled himself back to the present.

Hal realized he felt the same way about his partner. He'd just been kidding himself, or maybe he just hadn't noticed his own feelings until now. Truthfully, he wasn't sure if he was ready for this. Could he really maintain a relationship with Solid Snake? No, he wasn't Snake right now. This was a man who had put everything on the line at this moment. Hal didn't know if things would work out or not, but if anyone was worth trying for, it was the man to whom he owed everything. So, steeling himself, he once again faced David.

"I love you too Dave." Tears threatened to well in the corners of his eyes. Cursing himself for always being so emotional, he removed his glasses and quickly wiped them away. "But before we say anything else, let's finish cleaning up." Hal gave him a genuine smile.

Dave laughed. Not his usual chuckle, but that deeper, truer laugh that Hal adored. "You're right." For once, Dave told himself, the scatterbrained but brilliant otaku scientist had a point.


End file.
